The e-content company announced the addition of Microsoft PowerPoint as an integrated authoring tool within BladeRunner for the creation of XML content for e-business applications. Users of BladeRunner will be able to generate XML content from PowerPoint to gain greater access and leverage valuable information stored in this presentation software. PowerPoint is the latest addition of software tools to extend the authoring capability of BladeRunner further into Microsoft’s Office suite. PowerPoint joins Microsoft Word and Interleaf QuickSilver as integrated XML authoring solutions within BladeRunner. QuickSilver is an application suite for creating and assembling long, complex documents by individuals or workgroups, offering customers full access to the advanced features of Interleaf technology while allowing the creation of reusable content based on the open XML standard. The addition of Microsoft PowerPoint as an integrated authoring tool within BladeRunner will be available in the first quarter of calendar year 2000. www.xmlecontent.com
Category: Content technology news (Page 553 of 638)
Curated information technology news for content technology, computing, and digital experience professionals. News items are edited to remove hype, unhelpful jargon, iffy statements, and quotes, to create a short summary — mostly limited to 200 words — of the important facts with a link back to a useful source for more information. News items are published using the date of the original source here and in our weekly email newsletter.
We focus on product news, but also include selected company news such as mergers and acquisitions and meaningful partnerships. All news items are edited by one of our analysts under the NewsShark byline. See our Editorial Policy.
Note that we also publish news on X/Twitter. Follow us @gilbane
Acxiom Corporation the Acxiom Data Network now supports XML as its basis for providing InfoBase data products over the Internet to qualified, registered businesses. The addition of XML, a flexible document format for the Web, now allows developers to integrate the Acxiom Data Network with multiple languages and platforms. Developers now have the option of integrating Acxiom Data Network technology with ActiveX/COM objects on Windows platforms or writing their own interface with any platform and language that supports XML. In addition to support of the XML format, a new Acxiom Data Network software development kit, SDK 1.3, was recently made available. This new kit enables developers to integrate the functionality of Acxiom’s InfoBase data products including InfoBase TeleSource, InfoBase Profiler and InfoBase Enhancement into their own applications. Applications can access Acxiom data products in a real-time, on-demand environment simply by utilizing the same software programs companies use everyday for decision support, marketing automation, contact management and sales force automation. www.acxiomdatanetwork
The Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML), a joint effort of the United Nation/CEFACT and OASIS, attracted the participation of major industry standards organizations and companies from around the world at its inaugural meeting in San Jose, CA, USA. ebXML is an open, vendor-neutral initiative to establish a global technical and semantic framework that will enable XML to be used in a consistent manner for the exchange of electronic business data. More than 120 representatives from organizations as varied as ACORD, Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, Commerce One, DataChannel, DISA, UN/EDIFACT, IBM, OAG, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and others joined together to launch the ebXML initiative. Directors of ebXML include Klaus-Dieter Naujok and Ray Walker of UN/CEFACT and Robert S. Sutor and Bill Smith of OASIS. The Advisory Board includes Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems, co-author of the XML 1.0 specification, and is being expanded to include key industry players from around the world. Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS, will serve as secretary of the board. ebXML is an International Initiative established by UN/CEFACT and OASIS with a mandate to undertake a 15-18 month program of work to research and identify the technical basis upon which the global implementation of XML can be standardized. The goal is to provide an open technical specification to enable XML to be utilized in a consistent and uniform manner for the exchange of electronic business data in application-to-application, application-to-person and person-to-application environments. UN/CEFACT is the United Nations body whose mandate covers worldwide policy and technical development in the area of trade facilitation and electronic business. Headquartered in Geneva, it has developed and promoted many tools for the facilitation of global business processes including UN/EDIFACT, the international EDI standard. Its current work programme includes such topics as Simpl-edi and Object Oriented EDI and it strongly supports the development and implementation of open, interoperable global standards and specifications for electronic business. www.ebxml.org, www.uncefact.org, www.oasis-open.org
RosettaNet announced the release of its first 10 XML Partner Interface Processes (PIPs). Cooperatively developed by RosettaNet member companies, the PIPs are designed to align the electronic business processes of trading partners within the IT supply chain. RosettaNet’s PIPs are specialized system-to-system XML-based dialogs that define how business processes are conducted between IT manufacturers, software publishers, distributors, resellers and corporate end users. RosettaNet PIPs are essential to enabling the standardization of eBusiness processes among buyers and sellers in the supply chain. The PIPs were developed by analyzing supply chain processes, identifying mis-alignments, and designing a standard solution that enables global-scaled deployment. With the completion of these 10 PIPs, RosettaNet takes a step closer to achieving its goal of global deployment on Feb. 2, 2000. RosettaNet is designed to go beyond data interchange to align business processes. Like the earlier release of RosettaNet’s technical and business dictionaries and set of eBusiness protocols, the 10 PIPs enable supply chain trading partners to create standard message documents for use in conducting eBusiness via the Internet. The first 10, of an eventual 100 PIPs, support catalog updating and purchasing. www.rosettanet.org
Microsoft submitted to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) a draft specification for version 1.0 of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), a method for accessing objects over the Web that is neutral between object models such as COM and CORBA. SOAP uses XML to let developers write applications that call objects built with Microsoft’s Distributed Component Object Model, as well as non-Microsoft components. www.microsoft.com
Stack Overflow AG announced the commercial availability of the Mozquito Factory, an XHTML authoring environment. XHTML bridges HTML with the power of XML, bringing richer Web pages and more flexible Web applications for a wide range of platforms and browsers: from desktop PCs to televisions to kiosks to automobiles and mobile devices. Written entirely in Java, the Mozquito Factory is a client-side, stand-alone authoring environment. The Mozquito Factory significantly reduces authoring costs for complex, highly dynamic Web interfaces — saving hundreds of hours of programming time. Built upon a modular framework, the Mozquito Factory combines three independent applications into a toolkit: Mozquito Engine: to enable current browsers, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4.0 and higher, to process the extensibility and display next-generation data formats and standards, including XML and XHTML; XHTML Validator: to automatically validate any XHTML or XML document, optimize markup, and invoke the Mozquito Engine upon successful validation to view the Web page; and Factory Editor: to author and edit highly dynamic XHTML, XML and forms-intensive Web sites without scripting or programming. With the Mozquito Factory, users no longer need to worry about incomplete implementations caused by the browser wars or tiresome cross-browser scripting in JavaScript/JScript/VBScript or Java Applet programming. Developers can now design and create online shops, eCommerce applications, quizzes, polls, questionnaires, games, calendars, order forms, surveys, administration interfaces and complex, dynamic Web pages in minutes. Download the Mozquito Factory for a free 30-day trial at www.mozquito.org, www.stackoverflow.com/
TSI International Software Ltd. announced that it has combined its Mercator integration broker software with its Novera Web application integration product to deliver a – B2B integration broker. As the first new offering from the recent acquisition of Novera Software, this product will provide TSI Software’s customers with comprehensive capabilities, including XML integration and transformation, for deploying complex B2B integration solutions quickly, easily and cost-effectively. Customers will be able to Internet-enable any application by exposing and transforming existing business process interfaces as XML messages to trading partners over public and private networks and leverage their existing IT infrastructure in new B2B e-commerce initiatives. Using Mercator, customers are able to transform directly between XML schemas and schemas for any new and legacy supported content type, including EDI, CII, S.W.I.F.T., HL7, ACORD, SAP, PeopleSoft and RDBMS. Mercator provides the tools for extending the integration of applications and business processes to trading partners using XML, while protecting IT investment in existing information systems. Mercator’s XML support, coupled with Novera for hosting component-based server applications for the Internet, enables eBusinesses to integrate complex business processes with trading partners over public and private networks. Mercator and Novera are available today. TSI Software plans to offer the B2B integration broker in Q1 2000. Pricing and packaging details will be announced at a later date. www.tsisoft.com
Sterling Software, Inc. announced the general availability of EUREKA:Portal 2.0, the latest enhancement to the company’s EUREKA:Suite family of integrated business intelligence tools. Sterling Software has advanced their business portal to offer a broader range of personalization options, easier interoperability with existing systems via XML, and enhanced support for business-to-business implementations. EUREKA:Portal 2.0 provides a single point-of-entry for a broad range of business intelligence and enterprise applications. For IT administrators, it offers a centralized and customizable information interface for every user within an organization. For business users, it expedites the location, retrieval and organization of essential business information in an accessible interactive Web environment. In addition to providing a platform for accessing the complete range of analysis and reporting tools in the EUREKA:Suite family, EUREKA:Portal 2.0 also integrates with other existing corporate data sources within an organization. EUREKA:Portal 2.0 provides an expanded level of interoperability through XML and directory service enhancements. Significant upgrades to the product’s XML API broaden the Portal’s open environment and simplify the publishing of external file formats to the Portal. Customers can combine information from multiple sources and customize their access to the Portal via third-party applications. www.sterling.com/eureka
Subscribe to the Gilbane Advisor
